Madden NFL 06 PC Review Denver CO

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Another year and another Madden NFL hits the retail shelves. While it doesn't host the biggest fan base of the series, the PC audience has long supported the releases of EASports's most prized game, and while the Madden serieswill see much (atleast visual) improvement before the end of the year in the form of Madden Xbox360, the PC gamer doesn't have such exciting advancements to look forward to in the near future, which means Madden 06 PC is really the major release for these gamers. Lucky for them, Madden 06 is a significant improvement on 2005 in many regards, however once again we see Madden on the PC neglect to take advantage of its higher powered platform.

EA usually release a few majorfeatures per year with Madden and Madden 06 is no exception. This time around we see Superstar Mode, QB Vision, QB Precision and the Truckstick. What isn't usual about these features however is three; QB Vision, QB Precision and the Truckstick,are in-game additions which change the fundamental framework of how you actually play the game, but more on those in a bit, first up is Superstar mode.

Seeing as the PC doesn't have NCAA Football, you can't import your "Race for the Heisman" player into Madden 06 PC, which means right from the word go Superstar mode on the PC is somewhat of a bastardized mode compared to the consoles. What you can still do (Where "can still" = "have to")however is create your player, but this isn't done by normal "Create-A-Player" means as such - the way in which your player is given most of his characteristics is via your "parents". The game generated two parents for you, and based on their achievements and characteristics, Madden will generate your player. You can choose to regenerate your parents as many times as you wish until you get a combo you like. This is a relatively weird feature that doesn't really seem all that necessary - particularly when it is the only method on offer for the PC.

Once your guy is ready to go, you must then participate in a test, much like the NFL's "Wonderlic" test given to rookie prospects. This isn't a normal test though, because like in the real life testyou will encounter many questions which don't have a simple correct/incorrect answer - rather, they're based on personality. Some questions will be factual though, although these can be so hard you simply end up guessing. In any case, once the test is over, you're given a score and then you are forwarded to such tasks as hiring an agent, and entering the rookie draft where you will be selected to a team. The game follows the real 2005 NFL Draft orders and picks until it reaches your player, which brings up an odd "feature" of this mode - it seems almost impossible to get drafted early, and on top of this, once you're drafted and you check your player's Overall rating, he can sometimes be up to 95+ OVR as a rookie, and often you could have been drafted in the 4th round or later. While I agree OVR ratings shouldn't factor into the drafting process too much, this is definitely too extreme for my liking.